Monday, October 9, 2017

President Trump Tells Congress That His Immigration Priorities Must be Enacted

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Trump links border wall, green-card overhaul to DACA

In this Oct. 7, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump speaks to reporters
before leaving the White House in Washington for a brief stop at Andrews
Air Force Base in Md., on his way to Greensboro, N.C. The Trump
administration sent an immigration policy wish-list to Congress that
includes overhauling the country's green-card system, hiring 10,000 more
immigration officers and building a wall along the southern border. (AP
Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON
(AP) — President Donald Trump told congressional leaders on Sunday that
his hard-line immigration priorities must be enacted in exchange for
extending protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of young
immigrants, many of whom were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Trump's
list of demands included overhauling the country's green-card system, a
crackdown on unaccompanied minors entering the country, and building
his promised wall along the southern border.

Many
were policies Democrats have said explicitly are off the table and
threaten to derail ongoing negotiations over legislation protecting
young immigrants known as "Dreamers." They had been given a reprieve
from deportation and the ability to work legally in the country under
President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or
DACA, program, which Trump ended last month.

In
a letter to House and Senate leaders released by the White House, Trump
said the priorities were the product of a "a bottom-up review of all
immigration policies" that he had ordered "to determine what legislative
reforms are essential for America's economic and national security.

"These
findings outline reforms that must be included as part of any
legislation addressing the status of Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) recipients," he wrote, adding that: "Without these
reforms, illegal immigration and chain migration, which severely and
unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers, will continue without
end."

Trump
announced last month that he was ending the DACA program, but he gave
Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix before recipients
began to lose their status. Trump suggested at the time that he was
eager for a deal, telling reporters, "I have a love for these people and
hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly."

He'd also tweeted that if Congress was unwilling to find a fix, he would "revisit this issue!" in six months.

Trump
had previously said he wanted a DACA deal to include significant money
for border security and eventual funding for his border wall. But the
priorities released by the White House went far beyond that.

They
included a complete overhaul of the green-card system that would limit
family-based green cards to spouses and the minor children of U.S.
citizens and lawful permanent residents as part of an effort to end what
is known as "chain migration."

The
White House also said it wants to boost fees at border crossings, hire
10,000 more immigration enforcement officers, make it easier to deport
gang members and unaccompanied children, and overhaul the asylum system.
And it wants new measures to crack down on "sanctuary cities," which
don't share information with federal immigration authorities, among
other proposals.

"These
priorities are essential to mitigate the legal and economic
consequences of any grants or status to DACA recipients," White House
legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters in a Sunday
evening conference call. "We're asking that these reforms be included in
any legislation concerning the status of DACA recipients."

But
it remained unclear whether the president considers each of the more
than a dozen priorities to be non-negotiable or whether the White House
sees them more as a starting point for negotiation with members of
Congress. Officials on the call notably declined to say whether the
president would veto legislation that did not include each and every one
of them.

Trump
last month appeared to reach at least the broad outlines of a DACA deal
with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader
Chuck Schumer in which he would agree to extend DACA protections in
exchange for a package of border security measures.

While
Trump made clear that he was not backing down on his wall demand, he
and other administration officials said then that they would be
comfortable with wall funding coming later, in a separate legislative
vehicle.

In
a joint statement Sunday night, Pelosi and Schumer said Trump's list of
proposals failed "to represent any attempt at compromise."

"The
Administration can't be serious about compromise or helping the
Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to
the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans" they
wrote. "The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of
the negotiations. If the President was serious about protecting the
Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so."

Rep.
Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., the chair of the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus, said the president's "draconian and anti-immigrant principles"
threatened to jeopardize "the bi-partisan, bi-cameral progress that has
been made to pass a legislative solution that will protect nearly
800,000 Dreamers."

"It
is immoral for the President to use the lives of these young people as
bargaining chips in his quest to impose his cruel, anti-immigrant and
un-American agenda on our nation," she added in a statement.

The
demands could also divide Republicans, several of whom have introduced
legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers in exchange
for less drastic changes.

House
Speaker Paul Ryan's spokesman Doug Andres said the House immigration
working group will review the list and consult with Republican members
and the administration.

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